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68. Winter Dinner
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in With the Fire on High, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Teen Parenthood
Creativity vs. Professional Norms
Food and Connection
Caregiving, Independence, and Identity
Support, Community, and Mentorship
Summary
Analysis
The students who were cooking enter the gym as Chef Ayden shakes Principal Holderness’s hand. Chef reminds the guests that this was a fundraiser for their trip to Spain as Principal Holderness opens an envelope and announces that the class raised $2,000. Emoni mentally does the math: each student now owes about $275. Emoni can’t come up with that much money by the end of the week, but she blinks back tears and reminds herself that this is a happy moment. The lights illuminate lots of people Emoni recognizes, including some of ’Buela’s church friends and several of Julio’s friends. Amanda and Malachi hug Emoni, and Amanda says they did something amazing tonight. Emoni agrees, though she’s still trying not to cry.
This is a bittersweet moment for Emoni. On one hand, she and her classmates did do an objectively amazing thing: they fed several hundred people with recipes they developed, cooked, and served all by themselves. Still, Emoni can’t ignore that it’s also true that at this point, it doesn’t look like she’ll be able to go to Spain. This makes her feel somewhat distant from her peers, as she believes it’s a given that they’ll all be able to come up with the money and go on the trip.
Themes
Emoni begins to cut through the crowd to find ’Buela when a woman steps in front of her. It’s the chef from the fancy café ’Buela took Emoni to, and she says that Chef Ayden has been bragging about Emoni to her. She’d like to pay Emoni her compliments—the meal was wonderful—and gives Emoni her card. Emoni is so starstruck she can barely stick the card up her sleeve before ’Buela wraps her in a hug. ’Buela says she could tell Emoni made the sweet potato dish, and Babygirl could tell, too. Then, ’Buela introduces Emoni to Joseph Jagoda, who works at her doctor’s office; the office donated to the trip. Emoni hugs other friends and then sweeps Babygirl into her arms. She doesn’t know where the rest of the money will come from, but she’s proud of what she did to make this night happen.
Emoni is perhaps too emotional and blindsided to fully appreciate everything the chef says in this conversation. But the chef makes two things really clear: that Chef Ayden thinks very highly of Emoni, and that she, too, thinks Emoni has a knack for flavors. These compliments boost Emoni’s confidence, especially when ’Buela so effusively compliments Emoni directly after. Though Emoni is proud of herself, her primary focus remains the same: Babygirl. Getting to her daughter, and sharing a special moment with her, makes Emoni feel like all of her hard work was worth it.
Themes
